Come Break Me Down
by Kaet Huntacwene
Summary: Five's communication systems are down, so Virgil has to keep radio contact with a group of trapped civilians while he rushes to their aid.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N – This story began life as an idea, which grew into a one-shot, then decided to finish on a cliffhanger… Will probably be about fifteen chapters overall, from various POV, six are already written. _

_The title comes from the lyrics of The Kill (Bury Me) by 30 Seconds to Mars, which I listened to on repeat while writing this._

_As always, lots of thanks to my lovely sister LiGi, whose betaing saves you all from my atrocious spelling._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Thunderbirds. If I did, I'd be blowing up model tower blocks, not writing fanfiction._

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1

Virgil concentrated on the DOMO's controls, he could feel the fragility of the structure he was trying to move. If it wasn't for the huddle of heat signatures that the instruments had picked up, the only group in this area, they wouldn't be risking it at all. His radio crackled sharply and then quietened.

"Come in," he said into his mic hoping it was contact with John. This truly was one of the worst times for the communications system on Five to be damaged, but even John couldn't control the paths of meteors and they were lucky is hadn't struck Five head on or it would be their brother they were rushing to save.

Crackling answered him on the radio, then silence. He sighed, adjusting the levers slightly to compensate for the slight shift in the building. Another two minutes of tense silence went by. Scott didn't dare start asking questions or interrupting him when he was moving things this unstable and Gordon was occupied in his part of the rescue pulling children out of a half collapsed school. Alan was on Five, having ferried Brains there to help out John.

The crackling started again, then it cleared and a woman's voice said, "Is it working, Elliot?"

"All the pieces are back in the right order, it isn't broken." Virgil was surprised to hear a young boy's voice, sounding very much how he remembered young John.

"International Rescue, can you hear us?" The woman's voice was louder now, closer to the device, Virgil guessed. He listened for a few moments expecting Scott's voice, or John's. The woman repeated her call and Virgil realised he was the only one hearing this, he would have to respond.

"Hearing you loud and clear," he said into the mic.

"International Rescue," the woman's voice said in relief and almost disbelief.

"Yes, I'm Virgil, I'm trying to get you out." Virgil had never been in the reassuring position before, normally he just linked them back to Scott, or John through Five, but he didn't want to risk losing the connection, tenuous as it was.

"How many of you are there?" he asked, remembering this as something that was important to ask.

"Six," the woman replied.

"Is anyone injured?" He shifted the hydraulics again as the frame he was moving groaned warningly.

"Nothing serious," she said over the sound of tortured steel.

"Okay, good, I have some medic training so as soon as I get to you I'll be able to help." There was quiet for a while and Virgil wondered how he could get them to keep talking so he knew that the line was open. "Tell me about yourselves," he suggested, "What are your names?"

"I'm Charlotte," the woman who had been talking said, "Charlotte Clement, my brother Elliot is the one who fixed the phone."

Virgil heard the sound of it being passed on. "I'm Elliot Clement," the John-like boy said, "I'm nine."

"I'm twenty-seven," Virgil said, not knowing what other response to give.

"Really? Charlotte is nearly as old as you then," the boy said, a slightly cheeky tone entering his voice, before Virgil heard Charlotte's voice urging him to pass the device on.

"I'm Harrison Philips," a deeper, man's voice said next, "I'm afraid I'm not going to disclose my age to a younger man." Virgil gave a short laugh at that and heard the returning chuckle, he'd heard John talk about people's true personality coming out under stress, on the rare times John talked about rescues.

"Joseph Longmead, well, Joe," the next voice spoke.

"And Amber Chavez," a woman interrupted, "We're together." There was a happy possessiveness to her tone. Virgil nodded, not thinking that they couldn't see him.

"And I'm Anne-Marie Ryan," came an older woman's voice, "And I'm hoping that you know what you're doing son, you seem awfully young." Her imperious tone reminded him of his grandma.

"Don't worry ma'am," he smiled, "I've been trained to the highest standards."

"I should hope so," she said and then added in a gentler tone. "We'll be waiting for you, laddie."

Virgil thought he heard Amber's giggle.

Virgil felt the tracks slide as part of the ground beneath him collapsed, he revved the engine to pull himself forward avoiding the crack. All his concentration went to the equipment before him and he blocked out the chatter from the radio until he had cleared that unstable bit of ground.

"…So we thought why not have a holiday before the wedding too," he heard as the ground became more stable.

"When are you getting married then?" he asked Amber.

"Two months, I just said that… Is everything alright?"

"It's fine, I just had to concentrate on something else for a second," he said hastily to try and stop that note of panic in her voice.

"If we are distracting you from your work, perhaps we should stay silent," Harrison suggested.

"No." Virgil shook his head. "It's never nice to be sitting silently waiting for rescue."

"You speak from experience," the older man said perceptively.

"Oh I've been in your situation," Virgil said. _Not quite_, he corrected himself mentally, _I _knew_ Scott was coming for me, no matter what, these people have to trust and hope_.

"Is that how you recruit people?" Joe asked curiously, "You get rescued and then offered a place in your organisation?"

"Not quite," Virgil said, "But it's not one of those jobs you can apply for at career day."

"How do they choose you then?" Elliot asked.

"I was in the right place at the right time," Virgil said half truthfully, "And I had the right skill set."

"What sort of skills do you need?" the boy asked eagerly, just like John when he discovered something to analyse.

"The whole team's different," Virgil answered truthfully. There was no harm talking to these people about his brothers, as long as he didn't reveal their family link or true identities. "I'm mechanical and very good at driving different machines, I learnt on my Granddad's farm. But one of the other men is an aquanaut and expert on sea-life, there is the genius who designs our machinery and we have another genius in communications, he speaks at least twelve different languages, and by that I mean properly speaks them, the number he can 'get by in' is staggering, to me anyway, I scraped through French and Spanish in school. There's a NASA trained astronaut on the team and a competitive driver," he didn't mention that they were one and the same. "One of us was Air force, one English aristocracy and one was a bank robber, it's a _very_ mixed team."

"It sounds it," Harrison said with another deep chuckle.

Virgil looked through the DOMO's narrow windows, seeing the neon yellow marker ahead. Scott had dropped a paint-bomb – as Gordon termed the markers dropped from Thunderbird One – at the point where they had detected the heat signatures. He would have to stop the machines and get out to find the best way down to the survivors.

"Good news, I'm getting closer to you," Virgil reassured them, "Shouldn't be long now."

Suddenly the radio bleeped insistently and the connection switched to Scott's terse voice.

"Another aftershock coming, big one. Brace yourself, Virge."

Virgil felt the colour drain from his face. "Quick, if there is somewhere you can shelter that looks studier all get under there now!" he shouted into the comm.

The radio went silent and Virgil couldn't tell if they'd heard him or not.

He quickly shut down the DOMO's engines.

Ten painfully long seconds of silence.

And then the shock hit.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N – Thank you to JoTracy123, Silver Bee, grnfield, Florianderl and anon the anonymous reviewer for being so lovely as to review._

_Beta'd by LiGi (the rescuer of poor trapped spelling mistakes and abused grammar) _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Thunderbirds or any of the Tracy boys… if only…_

2

Virgil found that he'd closed his eyes at some point. He opened them to see the ground and remains of buildings further damaged. As he revved up the DOMO's motors it slid sideways, dislodged from its position by just the slight vibrations from the engine. Virgil tried frantically to correct that slide, but it was only Brains' amazingly engineered tracks that saved both him and the machine.

When he was on more stable, though not stable by any measure, ground, Virgil grabbed the comm and spoke into it desperately.

"Hello? Are you there? Charlotte? Elliot? Joe? Amber? Harrison? Anne-Marie?"

No sound came back, then out blared Scott's voice.

"Virgil, do you read me?"

"Scott, I've lost contact with the people trapped in there. I had contact before."

"Okay, Virge, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, what about them?" This wasn't a time for Scott to worry about him.

"I'm just getting a heat map," his older brother said soothingly. "God, everything is so much slower without Five, we need it working again. Ah, got it."

"Are they okay?" Virgil demanded.

"There are still heat signatures, that doesn't necessarily mean survivors though, but don't give up. I'll keep tabs on it and tell you if they fade, you keep going just in case."

"F.A.B."

"Do you need Gordon's help?" Scott asked. "He got all the kids out just before it hit, I can have him with you sooner than I could get there."

Vigil felt a strange desire to say no, Gordon often got the approval and credit from the victims and Vigil very rarely got seen as the hero, but he bit back that response as it wouldn't help anyone.

"Yes please, as much help as you can get to me," Virgil said firmly. IR was not a place to play heroes.

"I'm afraid Gordon is the only person I can get there any time soon and even he's going to be hoverbiking over some very rough ground."

"F.A.B." Virgil replied.

"Good, I'll call you on your watch so you can use the radio for their signal," Scott told him. "Keep trying for them, Virge."

"F.A.B," Virgil said again, very quietly as Scott signed off and then he picked up the mic again and opened up the signal,

"Charlotte? Elliot? Amber? Joe? Mr Philips? Ms Ryan?"

He repeated it several times, using different variations of their names, all the while carefully edging the DOMO forward over the broken ground. He supposed he could get the hoverbike out. Though they were difficult to fly on rough terrain they didn't have the weight problem that the DOMO had, but they would mean a longer trip if anyone was injured and Virgil was realistic enough to realise that that was most probably the case.

Suddenly, the radio crackled alive.

"I fixed it again. It got dropped, luckily I picked it up so it didn't get crushed and I fixed it again."

"Elliot!" Virgil sighed with relief. "Are you okay? Is everyone else okay?"

"I'm fine," came the boy's voice, "Charlotte got hit on the head when part of the roof caved in, not by the roof, by the debris, she's sort of awake though and Harrison said that's good. He's got a cut on his arm but he said that it's fine. Joe is okay too, but Amber is breathing funny and she said her inhaler was in her bag and that's buried in the rubble now. Anne-Marie was coughing a lot too, but she told me not to worry. Was that helpful, am I helping?"

"Yes, you're helping brilliantly," Virgil said solemnly and truthfully, the boy's description was very detailed, considering the barely contained panic in his voice. That was yet another trait Virgil associated with John. It had been John who had broken the news of Gordon's accident to them all, as he was the only one of the family anywhere near the naval base when the crash happened, and he had done it with the same quiet methodical panic.

"You're doing great, Elliot," Virgil reassured him again. "I'm coming to get you all out of there, okay, and another of my team is going to help too. We'll rescue you from there soon." He heard the boy sigh with relief, his trust was staggering to Virgil.

"Can I speak to Virgil please, Elliot?" he heard Anne-Marie's voice.

"What should I do?" the boy said and Virgil realised it was him he was asking.

"Go and help Harrison, he's right, Charlotte needs to stay awake, talk to her, make sure she doesn't fall asleep."

"Okay," Virgil heard the phone being handed over.

"Are you okay, Ms Ryan?" Virgil asked her.

"I'm fine," she stated, though, even through the comm, he could hear the slight rasp in her breathing. "A lot of dust came down and I'm not as young as I used to be. Miss Chavez needs an inhaler badly, though."

"I have one in my medical kit," Virgil promised, "When I get close enough I will bring it to her. I'm trying my best to get to you as quickly as possible, but I can't go too fast in case I bring more rubble down on top of you."

"I understand, laddie," she broke off to cough hackingly. "We all know you're doing your best, we'll last until you reach us."

"Can I speak to Harrison?" Virgil requested. Again there was the sound of the phone being passed on and then the deep voice spoke.

"How soon will you get here?"

"I'm not sure, as I told Ms Ryan, I don't want to risk causing a cave in on you."

"We'll last then."

"Can you describe where you are?" Virgil asked him.

"I don't know exactly, but we're protected by some concrete slabs, they have fallen and hit each other making the shelter we are in, sort of like a tent. There is still some light and fresh air coming from the top."

"Good, you should be protected. How's your arm?"

"Deep," Virgil was glad the man didn't lie, "But, with Elliot's help it's bandaged well with my shirt and I'm in no more danger than the others."

"Good." Virgil manoeuvred the DOMO carefully across a very unstable area.

"Did you learn first aid at a work course?" Virgil asked, trying to get a conversation started like before to stop the awful quiet.

"No, I learnt in college, a long time ago. I was supposed to be a doctor, that's what my parents wanted, but I changed my major sophomore year to law."

"My brother considered doing law," Virgil said truthfully, "Then he became a pilot."

"What does he think of your job?" Harrison asked, as eager for silence filling conversation as Virgil was.

"He worries. He says I put myself in danger."

"He's right," Harrison told him with a soft chuckle.

Virgil gave a ruefully chuckle of his own as the DOMO crept closer to the six people alive in all this mess.

"Gordon will be there in thirty minutes," Scott's voice issued from his watch.

"Good, I've got contact again, they are all okay."

"Excellent, be careful."

"F.A.B. Scott."

"What was that?" Harrison asked. "Backup?"

"Yeah, my team mate will be here in half an hour, he's making his was across from the area that's been cleared."

"Half an hour?" he heard Joe's voice in the background.

"That's when _he_ will get here," Virgil spoke louder so they could all hear clearly. "I not going to wait for him to arrive before I come to get you, as soon as I reach you, I am getting you out, backup or no."

A ragged cheer issued from the radio and Virgil grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N – Thank you to JoTracy123, ThunderbirdMom, Lexiet5, Florianderl, LiGi and Silver Bee for reviewing. Sorry this one took longer to update, I have been ridiculously busy with work._

_Beta'd by LiGi _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Thunderbirds or the Tracys or a Lamborghini Reventón. Sometimes life just isn't fair._

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3

Virgil was almost on top of the neon marked area. He radioed through to Harrison who was manning the phone.

"I'm close as I can get by machine, I'm coming to get you on foot now."

"Thank God," Harrison spoke fervently.

"I'm taking a remote radio device with me, you'll still be in contact."

"F.A.B," Virgil heard Elliot's voice say.

"F.A.B."

He started pulling his protective suit on over his uniform and quickly checked the med kit, oxygen and cutting supplies.

"Scott," he spoke into his watch. "I'm going down to them now, Gordon can catch up."

"Virgil, that's not safe," Scott argued, "You need backup."

"No, I need to get those people out, and I need to do it quickly, one woman is badly in need of an inhaler and two others are injured." Virgil rarely overrode Scott's commands but he wasn't going to let caution cost him even one of those six lives.

"F.A.B. Virgil," Scott relented. "I'll tell Gordon to speed up."

"F.A.B." Virgil flicked off his watch and put on his helmet. "Are you all still okay?" he spoke into the mic inside.

"Much better knowing you're here at last," Joe said shortly. Virgil didn't take any offence from his tone, they had been trapped for hours now and it must seem longer down there.

He descended from the DOMO clipping a line from his belt onto the machine so Gordon could follow and he could send the less injured survivors back some of the way to safety. He made his way across the rubble towards the area marked out.

"Could you shout out," he said into the mic and switched off the receiver so that he wasn't deafened. With his facemask up he could hear the faint sound of Harrison's voice.

"Excellent, keep shouting, I'm trying to find a way in to you."

He didn't hear if there was any reply, but the faint sound of voices reached him from across the rubble. He headed towards an area where larger concrete blocks had fallen, it was quite possible that they were under there.

Virgil was painfully aware of the amount of time it was taking him to pick across the rubble and the voices didn't sound any louder.

He kept going determinedly, coughing against the dust that rose up with his every step. He couldn't shut his visor though, he had to be able to hear them or he'd never pinpoint them in this fractured area of grey.

"We're here!" Faint, but unmistakably Elliot.

"Keep shouting Elliot," Virgil spoke into the mic again, "I can hear you, I'm coming towards where you're trapped."

"Here we are, Virgil! F.A.B. International Rescue, Thunderbirds!" the boy was shouting everything that went through his head but it helped Virgil track him closer, his higher voice penetrating the air clearer than Harrison's bass shout. "My name is Elliot Clement! I have seventeen Superman action figures! Help us we're here!"

"I'm getting closer," Virgil said into the mic, "I'm going to switch off the mic now and shout to you, yell back if you can hear me."

"Elliot!" It wasn't as impressive as his normal shouts as the deep breath he took sucked dust into his mouth.

"Virgil, I can hear you!"

Virgil went towards that sound and shouted again. Soon he was right above the voice, he flicked on his mic again and spoke softly. "Thank you, I've got you, I'm just coming down through the rubble now."

"How long?" Joe's voice was the first to speak on the newly switched on speaker.

"As quick as I can cut down to you, don't worry we have some of the best cutting equipment in the world."

"Why can't you tunnel down?" Joe's voice was strained and panicky, "I've heard you can do that, why didn't you do that and rescue us hours ago!"

"We couldn't," Virgil said calmly, lowering his mask and getting out Brains' new portable safe oxyhydnite torch. "Getting across to you was like crossing thin ice, and punching big holes in the surface could have caused places to collapse, it was safer to get to you slowly."

"Safer for who?"

Virgil bit his lip and concentrated on cutting, that was something else John sometimes spoke of, people needed to be angry at someone when they were scared.

"Safer for us, right?" Anne-Marie's voice was very weak.

"Yes, safer for you," Virgil answered seriously. "I've done everything I can to help you."

"What if it's not enough?"

"Jo-seph… stop," Amber's voice was hitching and she sounded even weaker than Anne-Marie.

Virgil cut through the last of the bars blocking his way and slid down into a narrow tunnel. He could see the edge of the big concrete blocks protecting the people below. Pulling out his torch and pushing up the mask again, he edged closer to a gap between them and the remains of a metal structure.

"I can see light," Virgil was relieved to hear Charlotte's voice through the radio.

"I'm coming closer with a flashlight," Virgil told them, "hopefully I'll be able to drop an inhaler down for Amber." As he spoke he approached the gap and looked down, it was further than he'd expected and his torch shone on the six figures huddled in the darkness.

"Virgil!" the boy was dark-haired, but still reminded Virgil strongly of John as he leapt up and squinted into the torchlight. Charlotte was beautiful in an understated way, Amber and Joe wore the remains of very fashionable and expensive clothes, Harrison was probably as tall as Scott and even broader than Gordon and Anne-Marie was nothing like Grandma at all in looks. Virgil took in the appearance of all the people in a split second and then he was unwinding the spare rope in his kit and tying the inhaler securely to the end.

"If I swing this down do you think you could catch it?" he asked Elliot. The boy nodded. Virgil dropped the medicine down by inches until it was within reach of Elliot's hand. The boy snatched it out of the air and hastily untied the knot, handing the little cylinder to Joe.

Virgil checked the markings on his rope with his torch as he pulled it up again.

"I'm dropping down my medical kit, there's water bottles in there too." He pulled off his pack, struggling in the confines of the tunnel, and unclipping himself from the rope, attached it to that before dropping it down slowly.

Elliot caught it again and went to unclip the karabiner.

"No, leave it on, I can use the rope to guide me back."

"Where are you going?" Charlotte asked vaguely, her hand pressed against the wad of cloth bound to her brow.

"I'm going back to get proper winching equipment to lift you up," Virgil told her.

"You will come back?" Elliot said his eyes wide in the dim light.

"I promise," Virgil told him and started backing out of the tunnel.

The rope line was coated with dust, but still bright enough to be seen as it tracked the route back to the DOMO.

His watch beeped as he was following the trail.

"ETA four minutes," came Gordon's voice through the tinny speakers, "And Scott thought it would take me half an hour!"

"F.A.B. Gords," Virgil smiled at his brother. "You still alright down there?" he checked, speaking into the mic again.

"We're good, I didn't realise I was thirsty until you gave us the water."

"Glad it was appreciated, Elliot, I'm just getting the winch out now."

"F.A.B," the boy replied.

"F.A.B," Virgil grinned, climbing swiftly into the DOMO.

His watch started beeping insistently.

"Yes, Gords?" he answered and was surprised when Scott's worried face appeared on the screen.

"There's another quake coming, not just an aftershock, stay inside the DOMO."

Virgil felt his face drain of colour. He grabbed the winch and, ignoring Scott's warning, leapt from the vehicle and sprinted back along the line staggering over the uneven ground.

"I need you to stay with me," Virgil spoke loudly into the mic, "Keep the radio signal open, Elliot."


End file.
